Epicentral
by Sheeana797
Summary: Their emotions rip them apart, but rip them apart together. Again and again and again. SasuNaru.


Author: sheeana797  
Title: Epicentral  
Rating: PG-13 for sex, language and violence.  
Pairing: SasuNaruSasu, NaruSasuSaku in the Bonus  
Warnings: This fic is very AU-ish.  
Summary: Their emotions rip them apart, but rip them apart _together_. Again and again and again.  
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

They meet for the final time where it began. The towering statues are once again the only beings to bear witness to their battle. Blood spatters everywhere, and they find themselves lying side by side, staring up at an endlessly blue sky.

Naruto somehow manages to pull himself onto his side.

"Sasuke," he says, and the roaring waterfall nearly drowns out his words.

"What?" asks Sasuke, trying and failing to look annoyed as blood trickles from the corner of his mouth.

"Sasuke," Naruto repeats, and it's all he can say. It's all he could ever say, desperately, angrily, sorrowfully, lovingly.

There's nothing left to say, then, and Naruto reaches out with a shaking hand. He touches Sasuke's cheek gently. His fingers smear the blood, and it doesn't matter.

They watch each other until death claims them both.

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When they meet again they wear different clothes and different faces. They do not recognize each other when they pass each other in the street, but when Naruto accidentally trips Sasuke, they yell in the same way. Sasuke punches Naruto, and he doesn't remember doing it before but it hurts just as much.

Years later they move in together, and the first thing Naruto does is scream at Sasuke.

"Get your clothes out of my closet!"

"No," Sasuke drawls, "Not until you get your ramen off my shelf."

Naruto launches himself at Sasuke, and the two roll around, kicking, punching, and biting at whatever they can reach. In the end, Naruto climbs off Sasuke and helps him up. They decide to eat dinner out that night; it's easier than arguing about what to cook. The staff at the restaurant look at the battered pair strangely, but ask no questions.

Their fights usually end violently, and their friends tell them they aren't right for each other. They stay together anyway. They feel most alive with each other, even if it rips them to pieces.

One day, when Sasuke comes home, the silence strikes him as odd. After a brief search, he finds Naruto in the bathroom, blood streaming from the hole in his stomach, staining the knife in his hands.

He kneels and takes Naruto into his arms.

"Why…?"

"Sasuke," Naruto rasps, and holds tightly onto his hand.

Sasuke doesn't quite understand, but something flickers in the back of his mind, and he picks up the knife.

Their blood mingles slowly on the bathroom floor.

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Sometimes they are friends, sometimes lovers, sometimes enemies, sometimes brothers, but they always die together. Screaming, fighting, loving, kissing, fucking, they do it all together in a thousand billion breaths.

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The motions of the waves rocking the boat only heighten the pleasure as Sasuke slowly slides into Naruto against the wall of his cabin. The only noises they make are quiet murmurs of approval.

After, they lie together on the bed, their fingers brushing up against each other. It is the only contact they allow. Tomorrow they will go back to being a captain and his first mate, and their rivalry will stir again, but for tonight they just exist.

As the sun's first rays hit Naruto's stomach, warming him gently into wakefulness, he watches Sasuke don his white shirt and black pants. He stifles a smile as his lover pulls that silly purple rope belt around himself.

They go down with the ship together, holding each other's hands tightly in a way they never had before. The last kiss Sasuke draws from his captain's lips has a tangy taste of blood and saltwater.

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Naruto and Sasuke are reborn a hundred times, a thousand times, and each time they tear each other apart until there's nothing left. They love each other _too much_; they lose themselves in the tumultuous whirlpool of their emotions.

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Gunfire rings out over their heads as Sasuke and Naruto crouch in the bottom of the trench. There is a terrible smell, of rotting bodies mixing with the mud. They are knee-deep in the stuff; after the rain it began to flow freely and now it coats everything from their hair to their weapons. Explosions rock the earth around them.

"Duck!" Naruto shouts, and they do. A shell impacts the ground not twenty feet away from them, sending shrapnel flying in all directions.

Sasuke stands and starts running. When he turns around, Naruto isn't behind him.

"Come on you idiot!" he screams, but Naruto doesn't move.

"…Sasu…ke…"

Sasuke is at his side in an instant, cradling his head in his lap.

"No, moron, don't die, get up, come on," he pleads, brushing Naruto's hair from his eyes, but he can see the large piece of metal embedded in Naruto's back. He knows his friend isn't getting out of this one.

Naruto's hand touches his cheek, and Sasuke grasps it.

"Sasuke…don't cry….stupid…I hate you…" Naruto gasps out, giving Sasuke one last giant grin as fire rains down from the sky all around them.

"I'm not crying, loser, it's just rain," Sasuke tells him, knowing that Naruto can tell the difference. Naruto laughs between his blood-filled coughs.

Sasuke holds Naruto's hand until the life fades from his eyes.

"Stupid…moron…" he chokes out. "I hate you too!"

He gently lies his friend's body down on the mud-covered ground, and then grips his gun tightly. He takes a deep breath, and vaults over the edge of the trench into enemy territory, tears streaming down his cheeks.

He only prays that someone will remember to bury them together.

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They are a mosaic of faces and bodies, ever-shifting, but their names never change, and they always meet. Sometimes Sakura is with them, and sometimes she isn't. Sometimes they kill each other, and sometimes they die side by side. Sometimes Sasuke loves Naruto, and sometimes he doesn't, though Naruto will always follow him to the ends of the earth to bring him home.

They dance around each other, the constellations in the ancient skies locked in their endless struggle and tied together by an unbreakable bond.

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BONUS (because when I asked my friends to give me a time period, this one just didn't quite fit in the fic):

"Oongh," Naruto grunted, strutting around in his loincloth.

"Unh," Sasuke grunted back, bored.

"Unngh!" Naruto threatened. He picked Sakura up and slung her over his shoulder.

Sasuke growled.

"Ongh….unh ungh ngh," Sakura grunted, gesturing.

Sasuke and Naruto glanced at each other, then shrugged. She was right; why not share?

Naruto carried them both to his cave and ravished them.


End file.
